First lady Jill Biden visits Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily on Dec. 4, 2024. After speaking to service members and their families, she went to the tiny Sicilian village of Gesso, where her great-grandparents lived before immigrating to the U.S. (Anna DeLange/Stars and Stripes)
NAPLES, Italy — Jill Biden began her last overseas trip as first lady this week at a Navy base in Sicily, speaking to military families before visiting the small Sicilian village where her great-grandparents once lived.
Along with her daughter Ashley, the wife of outgoing President Joe Biden arrived at Naval Air Station Sigonella on Wednesday as part of a six-day trip that includes stops in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and France, the White House said in a statement.
Speaking to about 150 military members and their families at NAS Sigonella, Biden highlighted her family’s military service. Her father was a Navy signalman in World War II, and her son Maj. Beau Biden served in Iraq with the Delaware Army National Guard in the years before his death from cancer in 2015.
That family history, along with numerous visits to U.S. bases over the years, helped inform Biden administration efforts to support military families, including a June 2023 directive that ordered federal agencies to develop a strategic plan for hiring and retaining military spouses, Jill Biden said.
Other measures included lowering the cost of child care, bringing universal pre-K to bases and ensuring that military children with disabilities can transfer their individualized education programs to their new school, she said.
“You’re the 1% who serves so the 99% can know freedom,” the first lady said. “And we have a duty to make sure you can build good lives.”
Over the last four years, she has visited more than 25 military installations, including a November 2021 stop at Naval Support Activity Naples in Italy, where she spoke to high school and middle school students.
First lady Jill Biden and Capt. Aaron Shoemaker, left, commanding officer of Naval Air Station Sigonella on the Italian island of Sicily, arrive to speak to service members and their families at the base Dec. 4, 2024. (Anna DeLange/Stars and Stripes )
First lady Jill Biden speaks to about 150 service members and their families Dec. 4, 2024, at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily. Over the past four years, Biden has visited about 25 military installations as part of her Joining Forces initiative, which supports military and veteran families, caregivers and survivors. (Anna DeLange/Stars and Stripes )
Those visits were part of her Joining Forces initiative, which is focused on supporting military and veteran families, caregivers and survivors. A priority has been to respond to decades of frustration expressed by military spouses living overseas with limited job opportunities, she said.
In August 2023, U.S. and Italian officials announced that military spouses and dependents of service members living in Italy no longer would have to give up protections afforded them through the NATO Status of forces Agreement to continue teleworking for their American employers. In October, military dependents living in Spain received similar assurances.
“I know this life isn’t always easy,” Biden said, in reference to the lengthy deployments and frequent changes of station that force many military spouses and dependents to leave careers, schools and communities behind. “That’s why Joe’s administration is making sure we do everything we can to support military families.”
Following her visit to NAS Sigonella, Biden traveled to Gesso, about 83 miles north of the base. The tiny community of about 536 residents was the home of her great-grandparents, Gaetano and Conchetta Giacoppa, who immigrated to the U.S. through Ellis Island and settled in New Jersey, the White House said in a statement.
As part of her visit, Biden gave the town of Gesso a European holly tree. It’s a relative of the American holly, the state tree of Delaware, the statement said.
